Can you be charged with a DUI after the fact? 50 Answers as of February 22, 2012

GET AN ATTORNEY. Plead not quilty and fight the case.

Yes. You can be charged for up to a year (misdemeanor statute of limitations). It sounds like you are only being prosecuted under the (a) count driving while ability impaired. You should hire a lawyer.

I have never heard of this practice before. However, in Illinois, they may operate differently than in other states. If you were under the age of 21, in Illinois, the police can report your underage drinking to the Secretary of State's office, and they can suspend your license for a long period of time, if you had even a trace of alcohol in your system. Perhaps, this is what the letter is all about. Contact an attorney with the document you received for a complete explanation of this.

The government has 18 months within which to charge you for DUI. Sounds like you have a defensible case and you should consult with a lawyer.

Hire an attorney that specializes in Criminal Defense and OUI/DUI Defense is the best advice you can get.

This would be a strange set of facts, but I suppose it's possible to be charged with DUII even though you were not arrested for the crime. If the police officer wrote a report and forwarded it to the DA and the DA decided that the police reports spelled out enough information to warrant the DUII charge he could theoretically charge you with it.

You should hire an attorney, or if you can not afford one apply to the court for a court appointed one.

You need to retain counsel ASAP to defend the charges.

The prosecuting attorney, not the officer, makes the final determination as to what charges are brought. This usually happens after the police report is forwarded to and reviewed by the prosector. At this time, you need to answer to the charges and should be represented by an attorney.

You should contact an attorney and don't miss court. That seems too fast for a court notice though. You also should have been given a form to request a hearing on your driver's license suspension. If you got one, you got a DWI ticket. You have 15 days from your arrest to request a hearing and subpoena witnesses. Some people don't realize their ticket is for DWI because they only notice the hand written violation. A DWI ticket already has the DWI statute printed in it and the handwritten statute is the charge that got you stopped.

You'll need to appear in Court and apparently contest the issue. In answer to the question can you be charged after the fact, the answer is yes. Your case does sound rather unusual. I recommend that you hire a lawyer. It will be worth the investment particularly if you have to go to trial in order to maintain your innocence.

Yes, you can still be charged with a DWI after the fact. Even though you passed the preliminary breath test and you did not receive a ticket on the scene, the officer can still charge you with a straight DWI offense for up to three years after the date of offense. A straight DWI charge does not require the state to prove a subsequent failure of a blood, breath or urine test. The state will still need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time of driving you did not possess the “clearness of intellect" to allow you to safely operate your vehicle. A no test case will be more difficult for the state to prove and will allow for more room to plea bargain. I would advise you to retain a competent DWI defense lawyer to insure the best outcome for your case.

This is a case where you need an experienced attorney. The attorney would file a motion to dismiss based upon the citation that you received. You said you took a b breath test. You would not have taken a breath test at the station unless you were taken there in custody. If you failed the test you would have been charged on the spot. There is a lot left out of this scenario. You need to speak to a competent lawyer.

You should retain an experienced criminal attorney with more than 20 years experience handling DWI cases. You can be charged by summons after you are released but it is very rare. Perhaps the officer saw that it was a very low BAC like .04 or .05 and wanted to ask his superior if he should charge you.

You should immediately contact an attorney who is skilled in the defense of DUI cases.

You must go to court and plead not guilty and ask for or hire a lawyer. If I had more facts I could narrow my advice. Even if you passed the breath test you can still be charged if it appeared that you were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Good luck.

Thank you for your inquiry You should hire an attorney to represent you. After a review of the facts, there could be grounds to seek a dismissal based on the breathalyzer test and lack of other evidence. Much will depend on details that are not part of your description of the offense.

Yes, you can be sent a DUI citation in the mail. The officer may not have realized that you were under age, or considered giving you the ticket. That does not change whether or not you committed the offense. You need to hire a lawyer.

You need to appear and plead not guilty. The field breath test is not admissible but any other field sobriety tests will be, if any were administered. Sounds like an error and you will be able to get it dismissed.

Yes, a misdemeanor DWI can be charged up to two years after the alleged occurrence.

Get an attorney who does DUI work and fight this. You have a good case.

Yes, you do have a DUI charge. Time to get a DUI specialist to help you. And don't forget the DMV hearing, which you only have 10 days to request before losing your license by default. This was one tricky cop, but unfortunately what he did was legal.

Yes you can be charged later, but those circumstances you describe are very unusual. If he had enough to arrest you at the time he wrote the citation, then normally he would have.

Hire an attorney and see what they have to prove their case.

You should appear in court to fight this DUI charge. The first hearing is called an arraignment. At arraignment you will enter a plea of not guilty and have conditions set for your release. You should also contact an experienced DUI attorney so you can discuss the particulars of your case in a safe and confidential setting.

Appear in court to contest your DUI charge.

Go to court, and talk to a lawyer about whether to fight the charge or do diversion. If you passed the breath test and didn't do field sobriety tests, the state will have a hard time convicting you, and the citation might be a mistake.

Yes, you can although I wonder if they can prove the case.

A person can be charged with a crime, even f it goes unwitnesssed. So a police officer can legally do what happened here. However, such a procedure might make the decision to charge subject to question by a good lawyer.

Sadly, this is standard procedure sometimes. And you do not have to be over the limit to get DUI. What you should do is contact a DUI attorney immediately who can help you fight not only your case in court, but try to save your driver's license from a DOL suspension.

Hire an attorney immediately especially if you believe your DUI is defensible. If you blew a 0.00% on the breath test your charge should be dismissed outright. However, if you blew under a 0.08% you still could be convicted of the (a) count in CVC 23152. This means that, even though you were not .08%, your consumption of alcohol affected your driving.

Yes. You already were, weren't you? Prosecutors and Courts are a bureaucracies that don't generally do what they can' legally do. Of course you can fight the charges. A DUI charge made after the fact without an arrest at the time is unusual, and can be fought on that basis. When arrested or charged with any crime, the proper questions are, can any evidence obtained in a test, search or confession be used against you, and can you be convicted, and what can you do? Raise all possible defenses with whatever admissible and credible witnesses, evidence, facts and sympathies are available for legal arguments, for evidence suppression or other motions, or at trial. If you don't know how to do these things effectively, then hire an attorney that does, who will try to get a dismissal, diversion, reduction or other decent outcome through plea bargain, or take it to trial if appropriate.

Most of the time the officer does not issue a DUI citation and you receive it in the mail after the fact. DUI is a serious charge and you need an experienced DUI attorney to represent you in court and with the DOL.

That sounds unusual but it is possible. Your best approach would be to consult a lawyer, present the facts and police report to him or her and see what they recommend.

Unfortunately you don't have to be booked to be charged with a DUI. You should probably consult with a DUI attorney immediately to understand what your options might be and what to expect. Good luck.

You can be charged, however it sounds as if you have a lot of grounds to fight it.

The officer does not have to arrest you at the scene, although that is commonly done. If you took a blood or breathe test and took a field sobriety test then you can be prosecuted for up to one year after the date of arrest.

Fight the charge. Plead not guilty at arraignment and hire an attorney.

Get a lawyer. You are probably being charged based on the officer's observations.

There isn't anything that prohibits the State from charging you afterwards. It could provide some defenses or evidentiary issues later however that may be helpful.